Ranked by many scholars as the greatest master of early Italian Renaissance painting, Masaccio (1401-1428) was the first artist to use effects of light to create three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional plane. This achievement, revolutionary in Masaccio's day, is one of the painter's significant contributions to art history.

In this fascinating exploration of Jan Steen's The Drawing Lesson, John Walsh offers an explanation of the individual parts and larger patterns of the work, allowing us to see how each prop and pose contributes to the larger theme--the art of painting and the education of the artist. He also recounts Steen's career and the history of the picture itself, presenting, in sum, not only an examination of a fine painting but also a lesson in how to look at and read a complex work of art.

This missal from the mid-12th century was used in the Church's liturgical rites. The major illuminated pages are reproduced along with a text that explains the iconography and historical context of the manuscript. The manuscript is one of the most visually dazzling and theologically ambitious works of the German Romanesque art. All the missal's major illuminations are reproduced here. The essay explains the profound theological statements found in the imagery.

The Spitz book of hours is one of the finest French manuscripts in the collections of the Getty Museum. It is also one of the most original and inventive manuscripts painted in the International style. The Spitz Master, its primary illuminator, allows the narrative of the miniatures to fill the borders, bringing its pages alive in a fresh and engaging manner.

This enticing scene in the Getty Museum's painting is an excellent example of fete galante, a genre that reached its peak of popularity in France during the first half of the eighteenth century.